DellaGrotte: Florian Could Run Over Huerta

You may have spotted Mark DellaGrotte as the bespectacled guy in a
flat cap shouting instructions in a thick Boston accent as the
cornerman for many notable fighters, from Patrick Cote(Pictures) to Marcus Davis(Pictures) to Kenny
Florian(Pictures). The leader of the
Massachusetts-based Sityodtong USA Muay Thai academy has risen to
prominence as one of the leading striking coaches in the country,
having helped transform Florian from a Brazilian jiu-jitsu black
belt into an equally dangerous kickboxer and clinch fighter.

After his stint as an assistant coach on “The Ultimate Fighter 4:
The Comeback,” DellaGrotte befriended several mixed martial arts
veterans who have spread awareness of his knack for coaching and
unique outlook on the fight game. Sherdog.com caught up to
DellaGrotte as several of his charges face pivotal fights in their
careers.

Sherdog.com: You have an interesting analysis
about how the size of the UFC Octagon factors into how well certain
fighters do, as illustrated by the Patrick Cote(Pictures)-Travis
Lutter(Pictures) fight in the finale of “The
Ultimate Fighter 4.” Can you explain that?
DellaGrotte: A lot of people don’t realize this; it’s never taken
into account. The actual cage, the size of the Octagon, actually
varies from venue to venue. Being at the Hard Rock at [“The
Ultimate Fighter 4”] finale, it’s a small venue, which means it’s a
slightly smaller cage, which plays a huge role in a fight in terms
of defending takedowns. I think Patrick Cote(Pictures) was not only up against the wall
with his grappling versus Travis’, but also his odds of staying on
his feet and keeping the fight standing are pretty tough, too, when
you get into a smaller cage. The larger Octagon obviously helps
Patrick
Cote(Pictures) stay on his feet a little
longer.

Sherdog.com: Can you give me the difference as
far as Octagon dimensions?
DellaGrotte: The actual size is supposed to be 32-feet in terms of
the official Octagon size. They often use a smaller one. I don’t
know the exact size of the smaller one. I know the standard is 32,
and they actually go down to a smaller size. Nobody even realizes
it. It’s something that I’ve noticed and not many other people
have. I don’t often talk about it. That’s just something that goes
to show you what goes on in the mind of Mark DellaGrotte when it
comes to planning a fight. I even take into consideration the
actual size of the venue and the Octagon they’re going to use that
night.

Sherdog: You’ve helped train and corner
Travis
Lutter(Pictures) in the past. What’s going on with
him?
DellaGrotte: Unfortunately, he had a tough last couple of outings.
He didn’t make the weight, and then of course he suffered a loss to
[UFC middleweight champion] Anderson
Silva(Pictures). That was a huge setback in his
career. He hit a big wall. He appeared to have overcome it
approaching the [Rich] Franklin fight [at UFC 83]. Unfortunately,
he did not spend as much time down here and as much time with me as
I think he should have. But his time was restricted, and he did
what he could do. He only got a chance to spend a couple of days
with me, and obviously that was shown in his performance. It was a
little lackluster. He hit the weight OK, but something along the
road went wrong, and he wasn’t able to do what he wanted to do
against Rich.

In my opinion, I didn’t play much of a role in his training. I was
merely employed by him as his cornerman. A lot of people will
actually bring me in and have me work their corner because of my
experience and my ability to do the whole job … you know, wrap
hands, corner the fighter, give him good strategy. It’s an overall
plan. It’s kind of like you employing, like, [cut man Jacob
“Stitch” Duran] if you wanted to bring a cut man to Japan. You can
call “Stitch” and say, “‘Stitch,’ I need the best in the business.
I’m up against the wall here.” It’s kind of like what Travis did
for me. He knew me well, and he knew I would help him if he
asked.

He specifically mentioned on the show, “The Ultimate Fighter”
finale, that he doesn’t have coaches; he doesn’t believe in
coaches. People were mocking him about it: “You don’t have a coach?
Who teaches you? What do you do?” Travis is a rebel, and he does
things his own way. He’s been at it for a long time, and it’s
gotten him to where he is, so he believes that it works for him and
it’s going to continue to work for him. I think even he now
realizes that he needs to make changes in his training. He needs to
listen better to coaches and to be more coachable. I think it’s a
lesson that Travis not only learned but is still in the process of
learning.

Sherdog.com: You draw from such a deep pool of
things when you try to motivate a fighter in his corner. Either you
sound angry at him or sound like the most inspirational guy of all
time. What goes through your mind when you’re talking to a fighter
between rounds?
DellaGrotte: What goes through my mind is, “How can I touch the
nerve?” Part of being a good coach is building a relationship with
the fighters and getting to understand who they are and what goes
on, even in their private life, and what you can do to motivate
them. Sometimes you talk about their kids, and they get crazy and
they want to fight harder. Sometimes you talk about the struggles
that they’ve had and where their career’s gone and how nobody
believed in them and now look at them. It’s not just going through
the gym, and you’re going to win fights if you hang out with
DellaGrotte. That’s not how it is. You’ve got to get to know the
fighter. You’ve got to get to know them on a deep, personal level,
so that when it’s crunch time and when it’s in the heat of the
battle, you know what nerves to touch to get that fighter to where
he needs to be to win that fight. Sometimes, it’s motivating them
on a positive scale that brings them the fuel they need, and other
times, you kind of got to s--t on them and tell them that they’re
no good. And then they look to prove themselves to you. It’s all
really just a strategy on the coach’s behalf to get the fighter up
for the fight.

Sherdog.com: What would you tell a Kenny
Florian(Pictures) if you didn’t think he was
pulling through in a fight?
DellaGrotte: If I didn’t think Kenny was pulling through, I would
obviously tell him, “Kenny, look at where you are, look at where
you’ve come, look at the struggles you’ve had.” Kenny
Florian(Pictures) is a lot easier to get up for a
fight than some other guys. I’ve often found myself actually trying
to bring Kenny down a little bit so that he’s not overconfident and
he doesn’t go out there and make mistakes. That happens when you
underestimate opponents and everybody tells you, “You’re going to
smash this kid.” You start to believe that hype, and you go out
there and the kid suddenly is stronger than you thought or suddenly
is better than you thought. Sometimes, you have to actually do the
opposite and bring the fighter down and say, “Hey, listen, this
guy’s dangerous. Don’t get too comfortable out there.” Getting guys
like Marcus Davis(Pictures) up for a fight is not hard.
Getting guys like Kenny
Florian(Pictures) up for a fight is not hard.
Teaching them to control their emotions so they use their brains in
there -- that’s the challenge.

Sherdog.com: What’s your breakdown of
Florian’s upcoming fight against Roger
Huerta(Pictures)?
DellaGrotte: In my opinion, I think Kenny’s going to determine what
type of fight he makes it. Kenny could run over Roger if he really
wants to, or he could allow Roger to give Kenny a fight. I think
Kenny’s ability to harness his energy and ability to control his
aggression and not become emotionally attached to the fight -- like
Roger likes to fight -- is going to give Kenny the technical
advantage that he needs. If Roger is able to get in Kenny’s head
and make him fight a sloppy, wild, Roger
Huerta(Pictures)-style of fight, then obviously
that type of fight fits Roger
Huerta(Pictures). Kenny knows he not only needs to
use his technical abilities, but he also needs to play a very
mental game with Roger … make sure Roger doesn’t take him out of
the element of his technical ability and turn him into a brawler. I
know Roger’s going to try to do that, and that’s what we’re going
to try to avoid in this fight.

Sherdog.com: Does Huerta do those things
before the fight’s even started, or does he do those things during
the fight itself?
DellaGrotte: I know Roger, and sometimes he can try to play a tough
guy type of approach before the fight. I know that he told Kenny
when they met recently doing some type of PR that, “Kenny, we’re
friends man; we’re boys, but I’m telling you man, I’m just going to
go at it, man, I’m just going for it.” Kenny came over and was,
like, “Check this out. Listen to what Roger said.” And we laughed
about it, because that’s just exactly what we know Roger’s going to
try to do, thinking he’s going to intimidate Kenny into fighting a
fearful fight or a wild fight with him. But Kenny’s smarter than
that. Those types of tricks don’t work with Kenny. Kenny is not
going to fight any other fight than the fight we plan to go in
there and fight. He’s not going to be taken out of his element.
He’s not going to switch game plans on the fly. We know what we
need to do to beat Roger
Huerta(Pictures) on a technical level. We plan on
it being a fun fight and an exciting fight, but we also plan on
taking Roger out in a tactful manner.

Sherdog.com: Can you give me the quick and
dirty rundown of your history in muay Thai?
DellaGrotte: I was introduced to muay Thai by a guy named Guy
Chase; he now owns a gym in New Hampshire. He introduced me to muay
Thai in 1992. I studied with him for a couple of years before I
wanted to take it to the next level. I did so by going to Thailand
in about 1997 or 1998. I went over to Thailand, fought as a pro for
a couple of years, went back-and-forth to Thailand for a couple of
years and was given permission to use the name Sityodtong, which is
very similar to, like, the Gracie family of Thai boxing.

When I first started doing muay Thai in the early 90s, nobody else
was doing it. Basically, the matches that I would get were smokers,
which were inter-gym matches with guys bringing guys from other
gyms. It was kind of like the underground deal. The UFC had yet to
emerge. It was kind of off-and-on, my career back in the day. Most
of my bouts came from Thailand. It’s tough to say what an accurate
record is. I have a winning record, but I don’t have many fights. I
have probably less than 10 fights, but the fights that I had were
all quality matches. I fought good names in Thailand. They didn’t
give me easy fights. I had a bunch of wins, ran into a loss [and]
had a draw once in my career.

A lot of people think [I’m] a muay Thai champ and [have] this
extensive fight background. That’s really not the case. When I
started doing muay Thai, it was on more like an underground level.
People still were not hip to the sport, and by the time the sport
emerged, my career as a trainer had already taken off. I only
started fighting because I wanted to be a better trainer. I had
taught martial arts prior to my fight career, and I actually said,
“I don’t want to teach unless I fight.” And everybody’s, like,
“You’re a great teacher. You already have students learning from
you. What do you mean you want to take off to Thailand and go fight
for a couple of years? Why? It’s working right now.” I said,
“Because I haven’t fulfilled that part of my life yet, and I want
to test myself in that range, in that field.” And also, I felt that
there’s nothing worse than the fat karate instructor who tells you
theoretically what to do but has never done it.

Sherdog.com: Why do MMA fighters come to you
to train their all-around game if you’ve been so specialized in
muay Thai?
DellaGrotte: I think it’s because I just have such a broad spectrum
of martial arts that I’ve taught and I’ve studied. I think, more
importantly, I’ve been around the fight game a lot longer than some
of these guys have. MMA has just emerged, but I’ve been involved in
the fight game since the late 80s. I’ve been involved in boxing and
kickboxing and helping boxing commissioners organize and sanction
things from state-to-state. I’ve been part of a movement of
legalizing MMA. I think that comes from not only my broad spectrum
of martial arts that I’ve taught and studied but my complete
understanding of the arts and how they all come together.

I think of myself as a modern-day Bruce Lee and a jeet kune do
practitioner. I don’t believe in just boxing or just muay Thai or
just jiu-jitsu. I think all the arts create MMA, and if they’re not
put together properly, the outcome won’t be the same. I think the
reason it all comes together so well here is because we’re
open-minded and we accept all the arts. I think a lot of people are
biased to one particular style because that’s their crutch, and
that’s what’s gotten them the farthest. At the end of the day,
Kenny
Florian(Pictures)’s not just a black belt in
Brazilian jiu-jitsu; he’s a K-1 Max-level muay Thai striker, he’s a
collegiate-level wrestler, and the reason why he’s good at doing
all those is because we practice all of those.

A big part of it is my overall experience and time invested in the
arts. For example, at the local fights the other night, one of the
guys was kneed [in the body] right at the bell [to end the first
round], and the ref was debating stopping the fight. Because
there’s no eight count in MMA, the referee was unable to stop the
fight. I basically yelled to my cornermen to get [the kneed
fighter] on a stool. The fighter was almost waiving us off like he
was done, and I told him, “Your muscles are spasming; it’s just a
spasm. It’s going to stop, and you’re going to be able to breath in
about five seconds. Relax and control your mind. Don’t give up.
Don’t lay down for this guy. You’re going to win.” And before you
knew it, he looked at me, and he’s, like, “I feel better, my
breath.” I said, “Exactly.” Experience is what I gave that kid. I
told him, “This is what’s going to happen to your body, because
I’ve seen this before.”